Tainted Betrayal
by AngelicProject
Summary: A one-shot story of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gears of Time. A story of the partner pokemon, Dusknoir, and Grovyle staying at Sharpedo Bluff.


This is a one-shot story, taken from FallenFromInsanity from . I took it so I could display it on fan fiction, because I really liked it. Please enjoy.

But yeah I don't own the story and any of the characters.

. . .

"It's you."

No.

"I've known it was you ever since you told me your name."

No, it can't be...

"It was unfortunate that you lost your memory, but it is definitely you."

It isn't true.

With his finger pointed straight at my face, Dusknoir announces, "You are the human partner that traveled into the past with me to capture Grovyle!"

It's a lie. He's trying to mess with my head. Me? Dusknoir's partner? He's the one that tied me, my partner, and Grovyle up and told his Sableye lackeys to rip us to shreds, and now he's saying that I was once on his side? The side that chooses to live in a world of darkness, serving a deity that's lost his sense of reason?

"It's not true," I mutter. "You're lying. You have to be! I-I'm not who you say I am!"

Dusknoir's stare turns cold. "Amnesia or not, you are my partner. Trying to deny it doesn't make it any less true. Grovyle and Celebi are making no attempt to deny it, so why do you insist that I am lying?"

I turn to Grovyle and Celebi, hoping, praying, for some sort of sign, for some assurance that they weren't buying Dusknoir's lies. What I see crushes me. They are both staring at me, recognition lighting their faces, and a deep, underlying hatred in their eyes.

I shake my head. This couldn't be happening. I look to my partner, seeking reassurance from my best friend in desperation. My partner is staring at me as well, shock written all over their face and, from the way their mouth is gaping, unable to speak.

The moment my eyes meet my friend's, that's when I see it. True, it was only there for the most fleeting of moments, but there was no denying what I saw in my partner's eyes:

Doubt.

No...

. . .

We escaped.

My partner had convinced Celebi to make us time travel, long enough for us to make it to the Passage of Time. We made it back to the past, but just barely.

It's the dead of night now, and we are taking refuge in my partner's old home, a place called Sharpedo Bluff. It is far too risky right now for the three of us to be out in the open; the one point we could all agree on at the moment. I feel Grovyle's eyes boring into me, but I cannot find the courage to return his gaze.

He doesn't trust me.

I hear my partner trying to convince Grovyle that he is wrong to suspect me. I hear my partner tell him about all we've been through, about how much they believe in me, how much they trust me. My heart stirs to hear my partner coming to my aid like this.

And if my partner believes in me so whole-heartedly, then I believe in me, too.

I'm going to help Grovyle in his mission to restore Temporal Tower. I'm going to help him recover the Time Gears. I'll do anything it takes to convince him once and for all that I am on his side.

I am not the person Dusknoir once knew.

Not anymore.

. . .

I feel them staring at me behind my back, hear their whispered breaths as we make our way deeper into Treeshroud Forest. They are both refusing to look me in the eye.

Last night, I heard their footsteps carry them outside when they thought I was asleep. I did not follow them, upholding their wish for a moment of privacy, but a part of me wishes I had eavesdropped on their conversation. Had they spoken about me? Discussed what they were going to do if I was deceiving them?

Made plans to do away with me if I showed the slightest hint of betraying them?

And are they continuing making those plans even now?

I shake those thoughts from my head. No. My partner would never do that. My partner believes in me, believes that I am good, trusts me.

Right?

. . .

My partner and I are back in our room at the guild. Grovyle has left to collect the Time Gears. We have discovered how to get to the Hidden Land and will be departing in the morning. My partner is sleeping soundly.

I, however, am wide awake.

If I close my eyes, all I see are the stares of suspicion everyone from the guild, even Treasure Town, has given me ever since we returned to tell everyone the truth about the world's current predicament. It was impertinent to make sure the truth got across to everyone, so that Grovyle would have an easier time gathering the Time Gears, yes, but was it really necessary of my partner to tell everyone that before I lost my memory, I was once Dusknoir's partner?

Though my partner insisted that I had changed, that I was no longer a threat, it didn't stop everyone from giving me those looks.

I had more than enough glares of mistrust whenever Grovyle was around, but to have them come from those Pokémon who were supposed to be my friends? It makes me sick. Why had my partner done it? Why had my partner purposefully told our colleagues that I was once a bad guy?

Did my best friend want me to feel hated this way? To spite me?

I stand up. There's no way I'll be able to sleep tonight. I walk out of our room and down the hall, heading for the guild's exit. It is surprisingly easy for me to leave Wigglytuff's Guild, and I continue walking beneath the starry night sky, hoping to clear my thoughts.

That is when I find Dusknoir at the crossroads, looking as though he were waiting for me.

. . .

Why I had gone with him was beyond me. Why had I purposefully walked with him down to the beach, without feeling worried for my safety? I didn't care for the reason anymore. In a strange, twisted sense, Dusknoir's presence was soothing, welcoming even.

"I was hoping for a chance for us to talk," he says to me.

My gaze remains focused on the ocean as I ask, "Then why didn't you seize that chance before you tried to have your lackeys kill me?"

"I did not know if you'd believe me if I told you the truth at the time," Dusknoir admits. "You and I also made a promise, before you lost your memory, that if either of us becomes compromised, we would kill the other."

"Of course we did," I huff.

For a while, the only sound is that of the waves crashing onto the shore. Then Dusknoir asks, "They do not trust you, do they?"

A cold, mirthless chuckle escapes my mouth. "How'd you guess?" I reply in sarcasm. The welcoming feeling that Dusknoir brought was slowly waning, making me feel more bitter and resentful than before.

"You and I knew each other fairly well once," is Dusknoir's reply. "I was always able to tell when something was bothering you, old friend."

A part of me feels the need to grimace to hear him call me this, but my face remains placid and stony. "I take it, then, that Grovyle didn't tell you the cost of his mission?" Dusknoir questions. "What will happen to us if history is rewritten?"

I do not answer, so Dusknoir answers for me, "We Pokémon of the future will disappear."

Shockingly enough, this truth does not surprise me in the slightest. "He may have failed to mention that," I answer apathetically.

I hear Dusknoir let out a 'humph' beside me. "What gall that Grovyle has; using your amnesia to sucker you into helping him complete his suicide mission, intending to take you and I, his greatest enemies, down with him in the process. How low is he willing to stoop just to have us out of his way?"

I say nothing, letting the sounds of the waves fill the air. "...I wanted to tell you the truth earlier," Dusknoir insisted, "but I feared your rejection. Besides, Grovyle was still on the loose, and I had my own mission to think about."

Again, I do not answer.

"...I missed you."

"Why are you telling me this?" I finally ask. "Why did you come to see me, when I could very well be using this chance to spy on you and relay everything to Grovyle?"

"Because I know you," he answers simply, "and you knew me, once upon a time. We had an unbreakable bond of trust, you and I, and we both knew what would happen if we let Grovyle have his way."

"We'd both die," I finish.

"And that is something neither of us wanted," Dusknoir confirms, "which is why we went after Grovyle, to stop him from erasing our world, our home, our very lives."

A pause. "I know you do not remember any of this, but I am at least hoping that you hold the desire not to die in such a terrible manner. I know that some things have changed...but are you still willing to do whatever it takes to preserve your life?"

So this is what he was getting to. He was asking me if I wanted to join him again, to take back up the mission to stop Grovyle from wiping out our existences. If he had asked me this a few days ago, I would have flat out refused his radical idea.

Now, however, the idea was very tempting.

A small voice in the back of my mind tells me that this is wrong. I have a life here in the past, a life full of friends who would be crushed if I betrayed them.

Yeah, a more reasonable voice argues, what friends? You mean those Pokémon who won't stop giving me those suspicious glances? Those Pokémon who think I can no longer be trusted? Those Pokémon who probably hate me now? All because my 'partner' chose to tell them who I once was? They won't be crushed if I betrayed them; they've been expecting it right from the get-go.

They don't trust me. They don't want me around.

And Dusknoir's right. I don't want to die.

My gaze finally meets Dusknoir's. "What did you have in mind?"

. . .

I hear my partner's voice calling out my name, but I keep my head down. I also hear two sets of footfalls racing towards me; Grovyle is there as well. This was it. They had taken the bait. They thought that Dusknoir had captured me and taken me to the Hidden Land. They thought that I was still on their side, but in terrible danger.

They thought wrong.

As I hear the trap Dusknoir and I devised being sprung, I also hear something else. A much quieter noise that I recognize as Grovyle's voice, full of anger and malice, directed at me:

"I knew it."

. . .

"How could you?"

Dusknoir and I are standing over Grovyle's body when my partner's words, weak and grief-stricken, reach my ears. My face is one of apathy, though I give my partner an accusatory stare as I answer, "I could ask you the same thing, _partner_."

Confusion flashes across my partner's face. "Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb," I warn, my eyes narrowing. "You were the one who betrayed me first. It's only natural that I stop you from stabbing me in the back by stabbing you first."

"No! You're wrong!" My partner is now approaching me, disbelief in their voice. "I-I never betrayed you! I-I believed in you, e-even after Grovyle warned me that I should be watching my back around you! I-I never stopped trusting you..."

Their arms are now inches from me. "You're my best friend...don't do this..._please_..."

I only say two words before I strike my 'best friend' down: "Shut up."

. . .

"Let us return to our time," Dusknoir says, a note of triumph in his voice. "There is still one more nuisance to deal with."

I hear the Sableye jump into the dimensional hole, but make no move to jump in after them. My eyes stay glued to the bodies before me, an ounce of pity stirring within me to see them lying like this at my feet.

They were fools, I convince myself. They tried to go against the natural order, tried to defy the course the world had set itself upon, tried to defy Master Dialga.

They have paid for their defiance with their lives.

I will not be a fool. I am not going to let history be rewritten. I will not let my existence be erased.

I am not going to die.

Turning my back to the bodies of those I once called my friends, I follow my partner back to our world, cold determination driving me to find the last of the fools, and kill her.

I am going to live.

No matter what.


End file.
